There were 442 road accidents in Bangladesh in September, killing 423 people and injuring 674, according to the Road Safety Foundation’s monthly report published on Sunday. Among the dead were 73 women and 61 children.
The foundation compiled the report from nine national dailies, 17 national and regional online news portals, broadcast media and its own information.
Motorcycle accidents, 154 in all, killed 139 people, or 32.86 percent of all deaths; they made up 34.84 percent of accidents. Pedestrians accounted for 106 deaths (25.5 percent), and 53 drivers and their assistants were killed (12.52 percent).
By vehicle, the dead included 139 motorcyclists and pillion riders, 26 bus passengers, 19 people in trucks, covered vans and trolleys, 21 in microbuses, cars, ambulances and jeeps, 88 in three-wheelers such as auto-rickshaws, easy-bikes, CNG-run vehicles and leguna, 18 in locally made vehicles such as nasimon, bhotbhoti and mahindra, and six cyclists.
Most accidents happened on regional roads: 178 (40.27 percent), against 145 on national highways (32.80 percent), 63 on city streets (14.25 percent) and 56 on rural roads (12.66 percent). In 168 cases (38 percent) a driver lost control of the vehicle; there were also 98 head-on collisions, 109 cases of pedestrians being run over or hit, 61 rear-end collisions and six others.
In all, 691 vehicles were involved: 162 motorcycles, 129 three-wheelers, 113 buses, 93 trucks, 29 covered vans, 17 pickups, 12 microbuses, 15 cars, eight ambulances, five jeeps and 46 unidentified vehicles. Most accidents happened in the morning (24.43 percent), followed by midday (21.26 percent), afternoon (17.42 percent), night (16.96 percent), evening (11.76 percent) and dawn (8.14 percent).
Dhaka division had the most accidents, with 132 crashes killing 134 people. Sylhet division had the fewest, 20 accidents with 21 deaths. Among districts, Gazipur had the most deaths, 38. In the capital, 52 accidents killed 21 people and injured 47.
The dead included 58 students, 24 political activists, 25 local traders, 18 NGO workers, 14 day labourers, 13 teachers, 11 bank and insurance employees, six garment workers, four engineers, four mechanics, three journalists, three mosque imams or caretakers, two police officers, two doctors, a soldier, a customs officer, a cleaner and a foreign national.
In the same month, 11 waterway accidents killed 16 people, injured seven and left four missing, and 23 accidents on railway tracks killed 19 and injured six.
Most road deaths were caused by vehicles going out of control at excessive speed, the foundation said, calling for technology to monitor speed and motivational training for drivers. Pedestrian deaths were rising because of reckless driving and pedestrians’ lack of awareness, and the government should run wide awareness campaigns in the media and on social media, it said.
The foundation lists the main causes of accidents as faulty vehicles and roads, reckless speed and attitudes among drivers, their lack of skill and physical or mental ill health, the lack of fixed wages and working hours, slow vehicles on highways, reckless motorcycling by young people, and poor public awareness of traffic laws.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report